In recent years, queer TV shows and representation have been slowly rising in popularity and getting a lot more attention, which is nothing but good news. However, a lot of them tend to fall into three categories: teen drama, autobiographical, or full-on tragedy. While all of these are well and good, it’s a nice surprise that we get to start this year off with a new romantic drama, Heated Rivalry. Mercifully, this show falls out of all three of those categories and gives us something a little fresh while still tackling a lot of important themes and questions shows of this style rarely cover.

The six-part Canadian drama follows two elite hockey players, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), through their careers as an intense media rivalry between the two is initiated around them. Behind closed doors, however, they are engaged in a years-long private affair that threatens to become something more than they can handle.

One of the first things that should be said about Heated Rivalry is that it’s not the kind of show you’d watch with your family. The show is adapted from a series of smutty romance books by author Rachel Reid, and the show does not pull its punches on scenes of an explicit nature, getting away with probably just as much as they possibly can while still being allowed on TV. The first two episodes consist of 30% plot, 30% darkly lit sex scenes and 40% of scenes of Shane and Ilya looking at each other like they wish they were in a darkly lit sex scene. Books like Heated Rivalry have their own place in the world, but in large part tend to draw a primarily female audience, as the plot exists to string along to the next scene of men kissing without much more exploration in between.

In that regard, it makes sense that the adaptation remains true to the original material in this respect, as if they were to adapt it to focus on a more tame romance, they’d likely lose a significant portion of the original book’s target audience and vision. Keeping these factors intact should always be one of the primary goals for any adaptation; for a small-budget series like this, retaining a fan base is vital. However, it seems like the creator of this adaptation, Jacob Tierney, still understands this divide between the target audience and the potential for a wider audience, expanding on the characters and world, with the length and volume of sex scenes decreasing after the opening two episodes and giving a lot more focus to the characters and their arcs.

In the middle of all the general lust of the first two episodes, there’s an interesting foundation for the two main characters and the interpersonal conflicts they might have when not in a hotel room. Shane is a Japanese/Canadian man, and in one of his first scenes, we already see him being used as a tool for the Hockey team’s promotional strategies in pushing how progressive they are, and how this status of being a role model might affect him. Meanwhile, Ilya struggles with a dysfunctional family back in his home country of Russia, with a brother who uses him for money now that he’s found success as a big-time hockey player and a terminally ill father who is never proud of him no matter what he does.

Both actors do pretty well with what they’re given here, and for relatively new actors in a breakout role, they shine. Shane is a closed-off and socially awkward man who doesn’t easily showcase his emotions. It could be easy for Williams to fall into a trap of playing him wooden and off-kilter, but it instead comes across with natural ease. It’s possible to interpret Shane as an autistic man due what comes across as very intentional acting and writing choices from both Williams and Tierney, such as his literal interpretations of other people’s words, his logical and methodical way of thinking and the pure dedicated interest he and his mother share in hockey that go beyond how it might be stereotypically portrayed otherwise. Nothing is ever explicitly stated in the show as to whether Shane is autistic or not, but a lot of his actions and the way he expresses his emotions (or struggles to) resonate with my own experiences as an autistic person that do feel like they go beyond just coincidence.

Later in the show, Shane’s big personal conflict comes with struggling to figure out his identity in relation to hockey and his career, forcing himself into a relationship with superstar actor Rose Landry (Sophie Nélisse). This is where Williams really shines, as it’s his subtle portrayal here that gives away Shane’s emotions during episodes 4 and 5 rather than any big outburst of emotion. One example comes towards the end of episode 4, Shane is out at a club with Rose when his eyes meet Ilya’s across the room as Ilya picks up a girl. There’s a big realisation Shane comes to here about the person he’s trying to force himself to be and the person he actually is that he cannot allow himself to be, and so he throws himself even further into Rose in the hopes it will fix what he perceives to be broken. It’s a brilliantly hard-hitting scene, and I’m not sure it would be what it is without Williams’ performance as we see Shane struggle to compute the emotions and feelings going through him in that moment.

Ilya’s storyline is the one that dominates the most screen presence of the season; however, as he is torn between wanting to care for his sick father, his brother taking advantage of him and a home country that wouldn’t accept him and his desire to be with Shane. Compared to Shane, Ilya is much more comfortable with his own sexuality on the sexual side of things, but struggles to make the emotional connection or to confront what that would mean to him if he were to truly love another man. This duality is part of what makes Ilya a compelling lead in this story, and what makes us truly want to root for him and his relationship with Shane.

Storrie’s dedication to his character and role is clear and impressive, with him learning and performing entire scenes in Russian in just a small period of time before filming began, including a character-defining monologue in the fifth episode that left me both shocked and impressed. I don’t know Russian, so it’s not for me to say whether his accent is convincing or whether Storrie and Ilya actually come across as fluent, but I can say that it’s completely impressive to convey the amount of emotion and nuance Storrie does in these scenes when acting in a completely foreign language to him.

Even further beyond that, the chemistry between Storrie and Williams is as if the casting director struck gold. They work beautifully together, even in the early episodes when the romantic connection is weak, you can see how much these characters fit together and how, in other circumstances, they may be together much quicker than these circumstances allow. A personal favourite here is in episode 2, after one of Shane and Ilya’s intimate meet-ups, at a complex Shane has bought purely for these occasions, as Ilya is getting ready to leave. The two flirt at the bottom of the stairs, going in for just one more kiss before he has to leave, acting as if that isn’t a deep sign of infatuation with one another. It’s a really cute scene that lays down the building blocks for a deeper relationship with ease.

Shane and Ilya are only one of the couples we focus on during the series, though, as episode 3 is dedicated to the story of Scott Hunter (Francois Arnaud) and Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.). Scott Hunter is a player in the New York Admirals whose game is at an all-time low until he meets service worker and aspiring grad student Kip and instantly falls in love. This story splits me into two minds; it ends up later tying into Ilya and Shane’s plot in a massive and satisfying way, and Scott Hunter is easily the most interesting character in the entire show to me. On the other hand, Kip is the least interesting of the main characters and a lot of his own agency and potentially interesting traits feel played down or sacrificed to further the personal angst of Scott’s story, while it also feels like this episode takes away some of the steam that was building up in Shane and Ilya’s story after episode 2’s ending.

In contrast to Shane and Ilya, who try to keep romance out of their lives due to their careers, Scott attempts to build one in secret in spite of his. He’d spent most of his life before meeting Kip alone and surviving, but this loneliness and isolation impacted his ability to even play the sport he was sacrificing it all for, and when he meets Kip, all of this built-up love and energy spills out and takes over, funnelled into Kip. Arnaud is easily the biggest name attached to this show, and he ultimately puts across my favourite performance in it, too. He consistently plays a heartbroken man who is torn between his career and his ability to love, who ends up drowning under the pressure and hurting those he cares about. The conclusion to episode 3 is the first time the weight of the narrative and the lives of the characters in it is really felt as Scott chooses to continue living his closeted life, only able to look at love from the outside and never getting to experience the kind of love those around him do. It’s this scene, away from the two main actors and characters, that first convinced me this show was worth it.

Another major factor in the show resonating with me as much as it does is the music, with only a handful of licensed tracks used throughout the series. One of my favourites is Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe In Anything”, used briefly at the start of episode 3 and then again in full at the end of the series’ penultimate fifth episode for one of the show’s standout scenes. “I’ll Believe In Anything” is a desperate love song about sacrificing everything for that one person you are madly in love with, and it plays no small part in building up one of the most exhilarating and nerve-wracking kiss scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a romance before. It’s a massive turning point for the plot and characters involved, and even some of the characters who aren’t, and I don’t think it would hit this way without such a thoughtful and brilliant pick for the music of the scene. The smaller soundtrack means that when a licensed song does pop up, it makes the scene it’s in feel much more purposeful and dedicated, and the episode 5 ending scene is a testament to just how perfect these choices are.

Heated Rivalry is not a perfect show; it takes a while to get into the meat of things, and some characters feel underutilised compared to others, but I’d be remiss if I did not talk about the cultural effect this show has been having since it was released in the US and Canada last November. Hockey is notoriously a rather homophobic sport, with no current out players in the NHL league and reports of rather homophobic locker rooms and spaces. On December 10th, a trailer for the show aired during halftime at an NHL game, and alongside this actor, Hudson Williams has reported receiving emails from closeted hockey players about how the show has reached them and made them feel heard. Minor league hockey players, alongside some other minor league sports players, both active and retired, have come out to make their own videos on platforms like TikTok detailing their experiences being closeted in sport and how grateful they are for the show. I’ve seen videos of both sports bars and queer bars alike hosting live watch parties reacting to the monumental fifth episode ending and the sheer elation and joy brought to those attending those parties.

So yes, while Heated Rivalry may not be perfect, I can forgive its minor stumbles if this is the sheer good it is going to bring into the world. It can sometimes be easy to forget how behind some aspects of our society are when it comes to things like acceptance and progression, and Heated Rivalry is a show that both reminds us of these faults while also trying to find a way to bring us out of them.

Heated Rivalry is now available on CRAVE in Canada, HBO Max in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK.